3 accused of setting woman on fire

Published 2:23 pm, Friday, April 13, 2012

Three people are behind bars, accused of kidnapping, beating and setting a woman on fire last month in an abandoned trailer in Channelview, according to Harris County prosecutors.

Garrick "Joker" Hastings, 25, and Thomas Martin, 37, are each charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and Anita Pena, 37, has been charged with aggravated kidnapping, court records show.

The three are accused of kidnapping the woman at a motel and taking her to the trailer where she was assaulted, reportedly over money owed to one of the suspects, according to investigators.

A resident on Elsbeth Street called Harris County Sheriff's deputies March 31 when he saw a nude woman on his front porch, severely burned and bleeding from her head, investigators said. The abandoned trailer next door was engulfed in flames.

The victim suffered severe burns on 80 percent of her body, and had several lacerations to her head and arm and two broken bones in her left hand, a physician at Memorial Hermann told investigators. Doctors placed her in a medically induced coma.

The woman's relative told deputies that the victim lived with her boyfriend and Hastings, a drug dealer who goes by the name "Joker" and who has a tattoo of a joker on his face, court records show.

Hasting's acquaintance told investigators that they were discussing the increased police presence in the area when Hastings told him "he had killed a prostitute and burned her body," an arrest warrant filed in the case states.

"(The witness) stated 'Joker' told him the prostitute had stolen $6,000 from him," according to the arrest warrant. "Joker told him (witness) he had beaten the prostitute with a metal rod, tied her up and set her on fire."

Another witness told deputies that Hastings and another man sprayed painted the suspect's vehicle after the assault, reports show.